Chapter 22: Spring 878AD

Scott spent a lot of time with his R&D group that winter, allowing them to drag every little piece of information they could from him on the topics that most interested them. He tried to refrain from making suggestions, not wanting to stifle their creativity, instead just submitting to the interrogation with good grace. So far they had been subjecting a number of materials to the tried and tested forms of processing - dissolving in water, evaporation, roasting at high temperatures - but Scott wasn't aware of any startling new discoveries as of yet.

He however, had introduced another idea to Inveraray, and one that he knew the people were going to love. He had been walking down by the loch side when the sound of a herdsman playing a simple wooden pipe reached his ears. The idea was so obvious and so big it almost blasted into his mind - if a mental process can end with an exclamation mark, then this was it. Bagpipes!

Given the association with the great highland regiments of his own time he couldn't believe it had taken him almost six years to think of introducing them. The skirl of the pipes was enough to stir any Scotsman's blood and they apparently hadn't been introduced to ninth century Scotland as of yet. How could he have overlooked this? How pathetic!

"Call yourself a Scotsman?" He thought to himself in disgust.

This idea was so important to him that Scott immediately broke into a run back to the camp, calling for craftsmen and musicians both to attend on him at the hall-house. Gabrain also came running when he heard Scott's raised voice. Men stood around as Scott produced paper and began to sketch out the basic design for a set of pipes. They were mystified by Scott's drawings but couldn't help be caught up in his obvious excitement and urgency. He knew some of how they worked - the basic bag, probably leather or pigskin he thought, drones with reeds in them for tone and the chanter to play the melody on. He began to explain what he wanted to the craftsmen, pulling in his musicians to help him with the dimensions and materials. He explained the basic principles and ordered everything else to be dropped until they had a working set of pipes for him to hear.

It took the craftsmen some time to manufacture the pipes and some trial and error to get the various pieces the right size and shape so that the whole sounded right. There was no shortage of reeds and no shortage of people who could play a tune on a simple pipe. No one however, had any experience of the technique required to inflate the bag and use it as a bellows to produce the continuous stream of air required for bagpipe playing.

Several months of practising fixed that though and one morning Scott awoke to the stirring sounds of pipers playing underneath the balcony of the house. Normally he might have been upset at being woken up but not this morning, not with that sound. He hastily put on his kilt and ran to the balcony. Down below there were a dozen pipers, making an almighty din as they played together, putting a huge smile on Scott's face. He was almost jumping up and down like a little boy he was so pleased. The noise was so loud that no one could have slept through it and soon people began to emerge to stand around and appreciate the pipe playing.

"Now all we need is some massed drums to go with the pipes and we'll have a marching band." Thought Scott.

Drums were easier to make; sheep hides being stretched over wooden frames to create a drum 'head'. Scott asked for volunteers and explained the idea of the drummers creating the marching cadence through their beat. Some additional practice with the pipers soon had them working effectively together.

Gabrain and Scott now made their preparations for the spring offensive in Galloway. They had an additional twenty-six longships at their disposal following the defeat of various groups of Norse in Ayrshire the previous autumn. A total of thirty-six longships and the two larger ships made a mighty fleet indeed, more than had ever before been gathered together in Scotland perhaps. Most of the ships had been left in Ayrshire over the winter, Scott using their own original ships to return to Inveraray.

Scott met with his shipwrights and shared some thoughts he had had over the winter. Two ideas had manifested themselves with regard to powering the ships. The first was basically to take the design for his water-wheel mill and reverse it. The same kind of assembly, linked to the steam boiler could perhaps create a paddle steamer? One wheel on either side of a ship, amidships for balance and trim, might do the trick. The second had come to him while he had been absently staring at a pressure cooker as the steam escaped from the valve on the lid. If they could generate sufficient steam and maintain a high level of pressure, would it be possible to use the release of the pressurised steam into the water almost like a jet propulsion unit? He had watched Sean Connery in the 'Hunt for Red October' countless times and remembered the 'caterpillar drive'. Could he create something similar? He left the shipwrights and craftsmen to argue excitedly over these new suggestions.

Sufficient seeds for crop planting in the new lands were loaded aboard ships and the small force of three hundred cavalry were embarked once more. For the first time Scott took Albannach, his huge horse, for use in the fighting. The herds of Rouncey horses were growing slowly but surely and Scott hoped to be able to horse more and more of his men on the bigger beasts in years to come. He also had chain mail for himself and Gabrain too, so they would be a little better protected on this campaign, something all the wives were happy about.

Scott was keen to try to capture Galloway as quickly as possible. His knowledge of the area told him that it could well become the 'garden' of Scotland as it was excellent farming country in his own time. The 'Machair', or Machars as he knew them, were flat lands and the Gulf Stream in this area also made for very good, temperate, growing conditions. If they could clear the Saxons and Danes quickly enough there could still be time to plant major crops.

The made landfall again at Ardrossan and made their way south through Cunninghame and Kyle, making sure seeds were planted using the new farm machinery. There was plenty of labour and the machinery helped them make short work of the planting, the Ayrshire folk astounded at the scale of it all.

Then they marshalled the now trained troops and marched into Carrick. Once more a halt was made while crops were sown and then a full muster was undertaken. The little bands of cavalry had done well over the winter in training up their new friends and the Ayrshire folk looked the better for having had a good, well-fed, winter too. The craftsmen had worked hard and virtually all of the men were armed with crossbows and either spears or swords.

With his cavalry all now re-united, Scott had one thousand horsed men and some seven and a half thousand infantry, a formidable force for the time, particularly given how they were armed.

Gabrain had been gathering intelligence from the many scouts that had been out over the past weeks. It was clear that there were even greater numbers of Vikings and Saxons in Galloway, and these were now warned that they could come under threat. He discussed things with Scott and the friends agreed that they wouldn't have things as easy as they had in the autumn. One thing they had in their favour was that their enemies probably wouldn't know their tactics.

Once more Scott suggested they tackle the Saxons first. He gave two reasons for this - one, defeating the Saxons might increase the numbers of infantry they could attract from the Galloway lands, word having no doubt spread as to the happenings in Ayrshire. The second reason was that they could pause to plant crops before then taking on the Vikings.

The Vikings were said to be based in three main concentrations, on the seaboard as usual. These were An t-Sròn Reamhar (modern day Stranraer) at the head of Loch Ryan, Clachan Ghlinn Lus (modern day Glen Luce), which was barely ten miles from Stranraer and at the head of the bowl-like Luce Bay and finally Siorrachd Bhaile na h-Uige (modern day Wigtown), high up in Wigtown Bay.

The Saxons were virtually all based in one place, Taigh Mhàrtainn (modern day Whithorn). This was a special place Scott knew. It was the site of the oldest known Christian church in Scotland, the candida casa or 'shining white house'. The church dated back to around 400 AD Scott thought and was reputed to have been established by St Ninian. The numbers of Vikings in Galloway seemed to have led to nearly all of the Saxons keeping together for their own safety. Scouts described a major site, what to Scott sounded like a cathedral almost, a priory and hundreds and hundreds of other buildings. The description came as close to a major village as Scott had heard. As to numbers, the scouts estimated there could be as many as three thousand Saxons all in this one place, unheard of in these times. It would appear as if this Whithorn was a major pilgrimage site for them.

This would be their first target then. As they marched south they cleaned up the small number of outlying camps easily. Scott discussed deployment with Gabrain. An important consideration was that the Ayrshire levies were untried in battle. While they had been trained, their years of enslavement were bound to have taken something out of them. He knew that the first sign of stiff resistance could have them running and racked his brains for ways to make sure that didn't happen.

They had overwhelming numerical advantage and he needed to make that work for them. Scott opted to send fifteen hundred infantry forward in an effort to try and lure the Saxons out of Whithorn. They marched forward, Scott's pipes and drums marching with them making sure the Saxons would not fail to notice them.

It took some time before the Saxons made their intentions known, no doubt their leadership urgently trying to bring their influence to bear. But soon they began to stream out from the built up area, shape and form beginning to appear in their ranks. Scott watched through his trusty binos as they began to move forward in disciplined, orderly fashion.

The Ayrshire infantry let them advance to within crossbow range and then began to fire. Their volleys were not as experienced as those of the Dalriada men might have been and as a result they didn't have the impact they might have had. Once the Saxons got to within twenty yards of them, they turned and retreated, streaming away with the Saxons on their heels.

The Saxons needed little encouragement to race after the retreating Scots, screaming their own war cries as they looked to close the gap. The chase continued for perhaps a quarter of a mile before Scott sprung the trap that he had set. He had tried to factor in the 'green' nature of his Ayrshire men and turn it into an advantage. He had read the famous 'Art of war' written by Sun Tzu, as part of his business administration degree at university and that was one of the lessons he remembered. He had instructed the fifteen hundred to retreat once the Saxons closed with them, close enough to ensure the Saxons would follow.